YouTube for Android will soon work as a background music player

"Background Audio" will turn YouTube into music player you've always dreamed of.

For years, Android users have dreamed about taking advantage of the millions of music videos on YouTube and using the app as a music player on their devices. The YouTube app has always made this extremely difficult since it is one of the only Android apps that is completely incapable of multitasking. If you start a video and leave the app, the video shuts down—it doesn't even save your spot. It looks like that's about to change, though, and you'll finally be able to be use YouTube as a multitasking-capable music player. Android Police ripped apart the latest YouTube APK and found a new setting titled "Background Audio."

The new option says that YouTube will "continue playing audio when the app is running in the background or the screen is switched off," so you'll be able to start a video, leave the YouTube app, and the video will continue to play. The text is in the newest release of YouTube for Android, version 5.2.27, but it is not currently enabled. Android Police managed to edit a few files and force the new option to show up in the above screenshot.

5.2.27 also brings a few under-the-hood changes in preparation for the coming offline support, but that feature is not enabled yet, either. Usually, hidden features like this take a few updates before they are fully finished, but it's great to see that Google is working on them. We should expect background audio and offline support to roll out to everyone within the next update or two.

Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo

A nice improvement, but "The Music Player I've always dreamed of" is still only Youtube when applications with better interfaces like Pandora and Spotify don't have the content deal for some specific song I want to listen to.

I doubt it. Being owned by Google, it is in their best interests to want to force people (me) away from iOS by not allowing certain enviable features. Then, as soon as their (my) contract is up, they'll (I'll) switch to an android phone.

this is a really big deal for me.. I go to sleep listening to radio shows on Youtube and the screen brightness has always annoyed me. Glad to see im not the only one.

So that's where all that internet bandwidth goes. Right into the bit-bucket.

Watching a video for the audio only is like driving your car at 100mph just so you can crack the window and feel the breeze.

Google may optimize the app to switch between audio/video and just an audio feed, to save bandwidth depending on the app state.

Of course a sleep timer would be a nice touch. I use the CBS radio app on android to listen to sports radio, and it has an alarm and sleep timer function... pretty nice.

Sure, now that the feature is explicitly supported, they can do it properly. But I wonder how many people out there are doing it right now, which just streams the video right into the bit-bucket. Actually, now that I think about it, that is probably why Google is doing it. I wonder if Google will see a measurable reduction in bandwidth used (probably coming from a CDN, but still).

I wonder how, and if, the advertising dollar for Google will be affected? Banners will obviously not work in this fashion, but how about unskippable and skippable advertisements, given the visual part no longer exists if used as a music player?

this is a really big deal for me.. I go to sleep listening to radio shows on Youtube and the screen brightness has always annoyed me. Glad to see im not the only one.

So that's where all that internet bandwidth goes. Right into the bit-bucket.

Watching a video for the audio only is like driving your car at 100mph just so you can crack the window and feel the breeze.

This is exactly what my company does with regards to its streaming music IT policy. Apparently Pandora and other streaming music sites are bandwidth hogs and are blocked. However, YouTube isn't blocked and that's what I use for streaming music at work. I've been told the reason for this is because the company has it's own YouTube channel and therefore must allow access to it. It makes absolutely no sense to me as it's been proven that music can increase productivity.

I wonder how, and if, the advertising dollar for Google will be affected? Banners will obviously not work in this fashion, but how about unskippable and skippable advertisements, given the visual part no longer exists if used as a music player?

this is a really big deal for me.. I go to sleep listening to radio shows on Youtube and the screen brightness has always annoyed me. Glad to see im not the only one.

Same here. Lots of times when I can't sleep, I listen to weekly video updates, mellow music, or even some of those guided relaxation/meditation type videos over headphones. Pretty sure I used to have a tweak/alternate YouTube app that supported playing with the screen off but I've since lost it in one update or another. Granted, I just typically lay the phone/tablet face down to hide the brightness but this makes more sense. Searching for such a thing shows you there's a demand for it.

this is a really big deal for me.. I go to sleep listening to radio shows on Youtube and the screen brightness has always annoyed me. Glad to see im not the only one.

So that's where all that internet bandwidth goes. Right into the bit-bucket.

Watching a video for the audio only is like driving your car at 100mph just so you can crack the window and feel the breeze.

Google may optimize the app to switch between audio/video and just an audio feed, to save bandwidth depending on the app state.

Of course a sleep timer would be a nice touch. I use the CBS radio app on android to listen to sports radio, and it has an alarm and sleep timer function... pretty nice.

Sure, now that the feature is explicitly supported, they can do it properly. But I wonder how many people out there are doing it right now, which just streams the video right into the bit-bucket. Actually, now that I think about it, that is probably why Google is doing it. I wonder if Google will see a measurable reduction in bandwidth used (probably coming from a CDN, but still).

The bigger question, since this is google we are talking about, is when are they going to start using audio only ads when the app knows it is running background mode...

Wow. This could actually replace Spotify for me, since a lot of what I listen to is also on YouTube... and a lot of the stuff I've been listening to on YouTube lately isn't actually on Spotify. (They tend to be indie musicians who put stuff up on iTunes, but not Spotify.)

Not going to be "The music player I always dreamed of" as long as the audio quality remains as terrible as it currently is. Spotify at least sounds half-decent, even as a free user. I also find Pandora to have very sloppy audio quality, though I don't use it often since with the introduction of audio ads they basically ruined their own service, not that I don't understand the need to monetize but I only need to hear McDonald's advertisements a couple of times before it becomes less bother to just torrent.

... I also find Pandora to have very sloppy audio quality, though I don't use it often since with the introduction of audio ads they basically ruined their own service, not that I don't understand the need to monetize but I only need to hear McDonald's advertisements a couple of times before it becomes less bother to just torrent.

... I also find Pandora to have very sloppy audio quality, though I don't use it often since with the introduction of audio ads they basically ruined their own service, not that I don't understand the need to monetize but I only need to hear McDonald's advertisements a couple of times before it becomes less bother to just torrent.

They only charge $36/year to not have ads. That is $3/month.

Does their subscription provide better audio quality (serious question)? The ads aren't my only problem with them, it was just the final straw that caused me to stop using their service.

A nice improvement, but "The Music Player I've always dreamed of" is still only Youtube when applications with better interfaces like Pandora and Spotify don't have the content deal for some specific song I want to listen to.

Mine has been Winamp for ages, guess my dreams are old-fashioned.

One thing that boggles my mind is that so many companies block pandora and not youtube. I've encountered hundreds of people that use youtube to listen to music all day, some videos just have the lyrics or a still image, so are pretty easy on the bandwidth, but many are full music videos, just playing in the background while people work because Pandora is blocked.

This is a great move but it doesn't fix another issue which means it's not quite as good as it should be. When I'm using a browser and follow a link that opens the YouTube app there's no way to switch back and forth between YouTube and web. I have to manually open the YouTube app separately then find the video which is a hassle.

This is most annoying when I'm listening to lectures and quickly want to refer to something on the web. It's also a pain when I've followed a lot of links from within the YouTube app because then you either have to press the back button hundreds of times or close and reopen the browser.

... I also find Pandora to have very sloppy audio quality, though I don't use it often since with the introduction of audio ads they basically ruined their own service, not that I don't understand the need to monetize but I only need to hear McDonald's advertisements a couple of times before it becomes less bother to just torrent.

They only charge $36/year to not have ads. That is $3/month.

Does their subscription provide better audio quality (serious question)? The ads aren't my only problem with them, it was just the final straw that caused me to stop using their service.

Yes, Pandora One (the pay service) has 192kbps available as an option. Since I use it as a way to fall asleep having the ads isn't an option (yeah, subliminal advertising!).

On to this topic, this is a seriously big deal for me, many, many live performances are only available on Youtube but I don't want to kill my battery listening to them due to the lack of background and screen off play in the current client. This will also allow me to use it in the car where my GPS app is in the front and it's playing a playlist in the background.

As to the waste of bandwidth comments, most of the stuff I queue up for background play has a few static images as the video component, even if it's being streamed in the background it uses almost zero bandwidth.

This is a great move but it doesn't fix another issue which means it's not quite as good as it should be. When I'm using a browser and follow a link that opens the YouTube app there's no way to switch back and forth between YouTube and web. I have to manually open the YouTube app separately then find the video which is a hassle.

This is most annoying when I'm listening to lectures and quickly want to refer to something on the web. It's also a pain when I've followed a lot of links from within the YouTube app because then you either have to press the back button hundreds of times or close and reopen the browser.

You can do share, copy to clipboard and then open it in the standalone client.

This is a great move but it doesn't fix another issue which means it's not quite as good as it should be. When I'm using a browser and follow a link that opens the YouTube app there's no way to switch back and forth between YouTube and web. I have to manually open the YouTube app separately then find the video which is a hassle.

This is most annoying when I'm listening to lectures and quickly want to refer to something on the web. It's also a pain when I've followed a lot of links from within the YouTube app because then you either have to press the back button hundreds of times or close and reopen the browser.

You can do share, copy to clipboard and then open it in the standalone client.

This is true but it's still a hassle and relies on me not forgetting. I'm not sure why Google thought it would be good for apps to behave this way.

The most significant reason I see them enabling this option is so they can cut their bandwidth costs for the people who are streaming for hours a day simply for the audio stream and not even watching the video part. As someone else asked about the ads not being viewable if the screen is off, it may still be financially beneficial for them even if they can't see the ads just for the cost savings of reduced bandwidth.

One of these days I should really start filing some patent applications for those ridiculously obvious "You know, it'd be great if" ideas that everybody has all the time...

It's ironic that you mention patents, because copyright concerns is one of the reasons this idea hasn't been implemented yet. It's not that no one's thought of it -- it's that music companies are concerned people will simply YouTube their songs and not pay, and so they had told Google not to permit background audio.

A nice improvement, but "The Music Player I've always dreamed of" is still only Youtube when applications with better interfaces like Pandora and Spotify don't have the content deal for some specific song I want to listen to.

Well, unless they adjust it so that more videos are actually watchable on mobile devices, I'll still use Psystar.

I don't know how many times I searched for a video on YT mobile, to not find it, and then load Psystar and have it be the first result.

You tube already works this way on Blackberry 10. Also able to switch to a game and listen to the game sound effects AND the you tube video in the background.

I'm a laggard and spent years waiting for mobile computing. I've never owned an iPhone

I've owned iPhones, Android-phones, etc, and yes, none of them even comes close to BlackBerry 10 at the moment. Stuff like having full multitasking (even between browser tabs) is a huge win. It's a pity that people only see the number of available applications and not the whole OS experience. For example, I have no use for stuff like Instagram and Google Hangouts, but I cannot live without full imap idle support, superb software keyboard, full multitasking, Bluetooth mouse and keyboard support out of the box, etc.

(Nokia N9 with Meego Harmattan is also an old favorite of mine. It was also capable of full, unhindered, multitasking)

Chalk me up in the PVSTAR+ group. That's the nice part about Android at least: if people have been wanting to do something for years there's probably six ways to do it.

This has potential though since Google controls YouTube. It would be a neat way to save on data if they can properly split it up. I also don't like trusting others with my information so I'll happily take the direct option.

Biggest concern I got is if it'll keep playing with the screen off. If so then I also hope it can join the growing number of lockscreen apps for basic pause/next/previous play and some scrolling (the way gmail is).

You tube already works this way on Blackberry 10. Also able to switch to a game and listen to the game sound effects AND the you tube video in the background.

I'm a laggard and spent years waiting for mobile computing. I've never owned an iPhone

On the z10, you can kill the video screen but play audio on anything, not just youtube. You can also just click the button on top to kill the screen.

The multitasking audio on BlackBerry 10 is a blessing and a curse. Sometimes you are listening to one thing, then you get an advert with sound that goes on top of your desired audio. (BlackBerry 10 has flash, so those ads play.)

Just checked both the official YouTube and unoffial YouTube HD, and neither allows this on Windows Phone.

The official non-wrapper MS app allows this, as does MetroTube.The sooner however got 'banned' by Google, so its no longer in the store (just the Wrapper version, which does not). The latter is still there.

It cannot however switch to another movie/track after playback of the current is complete, phone needs to be brought out of standby for that.

this is a really big deal for me.. I go to sleep listening to radio shows on Youtube and the screen brightness has always annoyed me. Glad to see im not the only one.

So that's where all that internet bandwidth goes. Right into the bit-bucket.

Watching a video for the audio only is like driving your car at 100mph just so you can crack the window and feel the breeze.

I use it specifically for the car. Between this and Netflix, the former has a lot of radio plays and the latter has some shows that translate well to audio only. I'm not going to watch the video, but I can get a good 45-90min of audio track. I wouldn't mind if Netflix started offering this option as well.